RPI earns much-needed win over SLU

TROY >> Good teams bounce back after poor performances. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute did so on Saturday night, posting a 4-3 victory over St. Lawrence in what was a must-win game -- if the Engineers want to climb up the ECACH standings.

Ryan Haggerty scored his 20th and 21st goals -- the latter of which was the game-winner and assisted on Mike Zalewski’s early goal and Mark Miller scored one goal -- his first since Oct. 19 and just his second of the season -- which tied the game 3-3 six minutes into the third period.

Scott Diebold had a pair of big saves in the third period and stopped 22 shots overall.

The weekend began quite poorly for the Engineers in a dismal 3-0 defeat at Clarkson as the Engineers didn’t carry over the euphoria of their big, 2-1 victory over Union in the Mayor’s Cup Game at the Times Union Center on Jan. 25.

Advertisement

Coach Seth Appert, Haggerty, Zalewski and defensemen Luke Curadi and Bo Dolan were serving suspensions at Clarkson as a result of the post-game brawl with Union. Appert said that was not why the Engineers lost; their lack of a committed compete level was.

He expected them to bounce back on Saturday night and the Engineers didn’t let him down. Rensselaer improved to 5-6-3 in ECACH play and 11-11-4 overall.

“It was a mixed weekend, for sure,” Appert said.

The eight-year coach discounted any notion that the Engineers suffered a letdown after ending a 10-game losing streak to Union.

“No, we were just horrible,” he said. “We’re a team that wants to come out with a gritty mentality to pull out a 2-1 road win but we just didn’t have that mentality. We had four top players out and we didn’t handle it well and it made for a chaotic situation.”

Not having those players (Haggerty leads the team in scoring, Zalewski is fifth) was not why RPI lost.

“And it’s tougher to replace defensemen than forwards,” Appert said. “But it had nothing to do with me, or those for players being out,” he said. “It had to do with those 17 guys wearing that (red RPI) sweater. The compete level was not even close to acceptable.

“Too many built-in excuses not to win,” Appert said, “and too many guys willing to use them ... our defensemen turned the puck over too much and our forwards lost too many puck battles.”

When asked it there was any one facet of RPI’s play that disappointed -- or infuriated -- him the most, Appert said, “no, we were just awful. It was everything. Everything about it was horrible except (goaltender) Scotty Diebold (26 saves).”

Why then, did Appert have such confidence in the Engineers on Saturday night.

“I felt we’d respond,” he said. “We’ve been through some adversity and the guys have responded. I like what I saw from our team in the Dartmouth, Union weekend and we had four top players coming back and I felt confident we’d play the right way.

“Now that’s no guarantee of a victory, playing in a tough place to play and against one of the top offensive teams in the country but we were able to gut out a tough win.”

Poetic?: Perhaps it was a bit of irony, or poetic justice, but the first two goals RPI scored Saturday night were by the two forwards who were ineligible on Friday night -- Zalewski, just 43 seconds into the game, with Haggerty assisting, then Haggerty giving RPI a 2-1 lead with his 20th of the season at 14:36 of the first period. Haggerty beat SLU goalie Matt Weninger with a nifty backhander with 9:12 remaining in the game and he and Zalewski combined for five points.

“Z has taken a big step; he’s playing like a top line center,” Appert said of Zalewski.

And the line centered by sophomore Mark Miller, with junior wingers Mark McGowan (LW) and Zach Schroeder (RW) drew deep praise from Appert.

“They probably spent 75 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone,” he said. “They (each) had a couple of chances and that gives life, energy and momentum.”

McGowan, who played mostly at center last season, stole the puck in the St. Lawrence zone and set up the tying goal (3-3) six minutes into the third period.

Diebold.

The victory over Union marked the first time the Engineers had won a game this season in which they did not lead after two periods -- Zalewski’s game-winner was the only goal of the third period. At St. Lawerence, RPI won for the first time when trailing (3-2) after two periods.

All of a sudden, the Engineers have won three of four since its six-game winless skein and the Union and St. Lawrence games gave Rensselaer a 2-3 record in games decided by one goal. The Engineers were a combined 9-11 in such games the previous two seasons.

Task ahead: The Engineers return home next weekend but it’ll be a tough task -- Yale and Brown.